BMC Software's “Patrol Dashboard” product uses a network monitoring method which measures the bandwidth of a network at different times and determines a bandwidth trend as a function of the measurements.
Patent application WO 01/80492 discloses a service quality indicator monitoring technique for use in telecommunications networks. However, monitoring is based on a subjective indicator and not on a trend calculation. Consequently, the variation over time of the monitored indicator cannot be determined.
In service level agreements (SLAs) between a network service provider and a user, the service provider undertakes to provide a network service with a given failure level. The network service may consist in real time transfer of sound or pictures, for example. At present there are no tools for forecasting accurately the failure of a network service.